Heart Blooms
by writerintheday
Summary: It's the one night of the year that everyone wants love, and the one night that Raven is alone. No one notices her slip out- except the princess of hearts.


Raven is pretty much devastated, she thinks.

Dozens of people dance around Raven, a swirl of activity around her. She's standing in the middle of the dance floor, too shocked to move.

She was sure that Dexter was her Prince Charming. After all, who else could it be? He is a _Charming_. If Dexter isn't her prince, then who is? Is there even someone out there for her?

The girl watches Cupid and Dexter laughing, both of them in a table to the corner. The lighting is dimmed and it seems like the most romantic place in the world to Raven at the moment.

Why isn't it her, why can't she be as happy as Cupid looks? She wonders if she will ever find someone who will support her and surprise her with flowers on a Thursday afternoon, someone who she can trust and pour her heart out to. Raven wants someone that she can someday fall in love with, she realizes. With all of her problems with her destiny and rebels and royals, there hasn't been much time for Raven to think about romance. But now that she sees Cupid and Dexter together? She wants something more than ever.

Raven swipes at her eyes- somehow, they are wet with tears that she did not notice until now. She doesn't remember starting to cry, but the proof is all there.

As if in a trance, Raven walks in the direction of her dorm room. Every one in the school is celebrating True Hearts Day and is at the dance, and no one sees her slip out.

No one, that is, except Lizzie Hearts, feeling just as alone as Raven does.

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Lizzie doesn't know much about Raven Queen, no. She doesn't know Raven's favorite food or her music taste or how her childhood was. Lizzie, admittedly, knows almost no facts about the girl.

What she does know, though? She knows how Raven tilts her head in concentration, and how she likes color coding her notes. (Lizzie sits behind her in Kingdom Management and watches how Raven sets all her different colored pens on her desk in wonderment.) She knows that Raven always licks all the foamy whipped cream off the top of her lattes and that she is determined to become the ideal leader. She sees how she runs her hand through her hair when there is a hard test in front of her, how she manages to make everyone feel involved, how she always gives everyone a chance. Lizzie sees the way Raven always walks with confidence and poise, and well- she admires the strong girl. Lizzie sees all of this and more.

And of course, Raven is beautiful. So there is that.

Lizzie considers herself a very observant person- with all of the people who are terrified of her, she spends much of her time alone. It's in this that Lizzie takes it on herself to observe others and how she developed the ability to catch the slightest fidget indicating a lie or see sadness hidden underneath many, many layers of fake happy. It's how she knows that Cupid has nightmares and sometimes ends up slipping into Poppy's bed at night to cuddle and cry, and how she knows that Duchess sometimes makes herself throw up to maintain a perfect figure. It's how she figured out way ahead of everyone else that Hunter and Ashlynn are in love and that Cerise is part wolf. Lizzie holds secrets for people who have no clue that she knows them.

That is why Lizzie pieces together why Raven has darted from the scene so suddenly. Her first thought is that Dexter has made a move on her and she, not having any idea on how to react, has ran. The nerdy brother has been gaining confidence lately, and she knew that it wouldn't be long before he used it. One look around trying to catch a glimpse of him is all it takes for Lizzie's eyes to widen and for everything to click together.

Cupid and Dexter?

When had that happened?

Well, Lizzie had certainly not seen that coming. And- admittedly- it bruised her ego a tiny bit.

But she understands. She understands why Raven has fled, and how she feels. Lizzie has felt that kind of alone before.

Her best guess is that Dexter has found some way to confess his crush in an extremely vague way, only to leave Raven behind as he goes off with another girl- who in this case is Cupid. Whatever the case is, thought, Lizzie doesn't particularly care. What she cares about is the fact that an alone Raven is possibly crying in the dark silence of the empty school.

It takes her 0.2 seconds to decide that she must do something.

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Raven has never heard the castle quite as quiet as this before. Tonight is the only night it can get this quiet, she thinks. People often stay behind at other dances, and Thronecoming has crazy happenings all over the castle. Tonight, everyone wishes to find their prince or princess charming on the dance floor.

True Hearts Day. What worse day could she have chosen for this crisis in her mind? The day of love is the day she doubts she will ever find any.

It's been half an hour, but to Raven it feels like it's been days of hibernating under her covers. She has just been there, being. Thinking about how unlikely it is that any one will ever love her.

It's five minutes after she has the thought of just staying in bed forever and learning how to live alone that she hears the familiar sound of heels clacking on the floor. And then, a while later, a knock at the door. _Her_ door.

Who could it be? Raven stays in bed while she wonders this, not bothering to get up. Perhaps Apple, noticing that she had disappeared halfway through the dance. It's likely, because Apple has been concentrating on being an especially good friend to her the past few weeks, but then again- she has her own Prince Charming.

After the mysterious figure knocks again, it occurs to her that she could find out if she gets up. So she does so, walking sluggishly towards the door and flinging it open.

Her eyes widen.

Suddenly she's wide awake.

There's Lizzie Hearts, arms full of dozens and dozens of heart blooms. They're overflowing, really, with some in the hallway where Lizzie must have accidentally dropped them. It's dozens and dozens of hearts in shades of pink and red, and there are so many that Raven can't imagine where she got so many.

Raven steps out of her room, leaving the door wide open behind her. Lizzie can probably see the mess of blankets on Raven's bed and vast amount of used tissues, but Raven doesn't particularly care at the moment. "Lizzie- what is all of this?"

The other girl smiles slightly and holds out her armful of heart blooms to Raven. A few fall on the floor in the process, making the floor seem like a sea of love. Raven takes note of this and her eyes fill with tears at the thought.

Lizzie takes an unsure step back. "Raven, I didn't mean to make you cry. If you want I can take all this back. I'm sorry- off with _my_ head?"

Raven shakes her head through tears. "No, no, I'm sorry. Can you- Can you maybe wait a second?"

The girl leans against the frame of the door, taking a deep breath in. She wants to process everything, because it is too much for one night and very overwhelming for her mind.

She takes in the facts. Dexter and Cupid are almost most certainly a couple or at least like each other, she must get used to the fact that her future with anyone is not set in stone, and Lizzie- Lizzie Hearts is standing- quite awkwardly and unsure, which is unusual for her- in front of Raven, carrying the most amount of hearts she's ever seen in one place.

A full minute later, Raven pulls herself off of the frame of the door and wipes her tears away with her sleeve. "Okay. Okay, I'm done. What is this? Why are you here?"

Lizzie's struggling to hold on to the heart blooms now, and Raven takes notice of this. She rushes forward to take them and watches the other girl then straighten herself out and clear her throat. "They are heart blooms, as you can probably see," she begins, looking Raven in the eye. Confident Lizzie is back, Raven can see. "And I guess this is me saying that you do not have to be alone today. Or any other day, for that matter. This sounds vague and confusing, I should think. I'm not sure how to do this. I'm not even too sure about what I am doing. Well- Raven, I think you're- a pretty good person. And that is saying a lot for me, because most people here are not very nice to me. And I think I might like you a little bit. Maybe."

Raven lets out a deep breath. "I actually came up here because I thought no one would ever like me. Not that I wouldn't be fine being alone- you know, strong independent woman and all that! – but it would be nice to have someone. So thank you for coming here and doing this. It- it really means a lot."

Lizzie nods, smiling slightly. She turns to go, but Raven's voice makes her linger. "By the way, I could like you too. And if you wanted to meet up sometimes for coffee or dinner and a movie, that would be cool."

Lizzie nods. "I'd like that."

She walks towards the stairs with her heels echoing down the hallway as Raven turns to go back into her room. She stumbles a bit- between her high shoes and the surprising heaviness of the heart blooms, it's hard for her to carry all of the hearts.

It's when she's halfway to her bed that she hears the urgent clacking of heels for the second time. They get quicker and quicker, and Raven turns around to catch Lizzie as the princess of hearts kisses her more deeply than Raven has ever been kissed. The heart blooms go cascading out of Raven's arms so that she can hold Lizzie, and it's just the two of them existing.

Lizzie pulls apart and looks Raven in the eye. "I'd _really_ like that."

And Raven smiles, because she's okay now. She's more than okay- she's happy.

 **Hey! This was supposed to be up on Valentine's Day, but I got extremely sick the day of and then lost the inspiration to write for a while. So here this is- late, but here whatsoever!**

 **The inspiration for this story come from a guest reviewer on my last story who suggested something similar to this. Thank you, whoever you are! And thank you for reading this, I hope it made your day a bit better!**


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